For many low-volume Kenyan farmers, the only source of information about the market rate for crops comes from the very people who are trying to buy them. The lack of pricing transparency means that farmers don't always get the best deal. MFarm seeks to solve this by providing up-to-date market prices via an app or SMS, direct to farmers. It also connects farmers with buyers directly, cutting out the middlemen.

MFarm's CEO is Jamila Abass, a 29-year-old computer scientist from Kenya. She founded MFarm in 2010 after reading about how farmers have been "oppressed for decades and disconnected in terms of information". "Many farmers only have the produce, but don't have the means to market their produce themselves," Abass told Wired.co.uk. "They have to rely on middlemen who show up and give them both the price and the buyer. They have no information and no alternative market. We wanted to close that information gap between the farmers and the market."

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Abass and her team developed a tool that allows farmers to SMS the number 20255 to receive information relating to the retail price of their products -- updated daily with information for 42 crops (including peas, sugar snaps, avocadoes, passion fruit, peanuts, potatoes, cassava and mangos) sold in 5 markets. But as they were doing this, they realised that they might be creating another problem. "Farmers don't have storage facilities and they know that the buyer who comes around to the farm can just go next door and get produce from someone else. So we could end up taking away the only access to market they have," Abass explained.

Others have come to the market using technology to create a trading platform that farmers are not ready for. They have also been set up by non-profit organisations and run out of money, leaving the farmers high and dry. This makes them sceptical.

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MFarm realised that the root problem was not price transparency but the fact that farmers are producing in low volume and that many buyers in big cities don't want the hassle of getting the volume they need from multiple different farmers. This led MFarm into offering a group selling tool, which gets farmers to team up to bring produce to certain drop off points. They then send an SMS to the system promoting what they have to sell. "All of these farmers who are too small to market to a big buyer become visible because they have more product," Abass says.

In addition to pricing information and group selling, MFarm has also developed a group buying tool, allowing farmers to pool resources to negotiate better prices for things like fertiliser.

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Transactions are all handled by MFarm's integrated mobile money transfer system -- drawing on mobile payment technology MPesa -- but can also be plugged into people's bank accounts (if they have one). When an order is placed through MFarm, the farmer takes his or her produce to the designated collection point and sends a message to confirm the produce has been delivered. The buyer then collects the produce and verifies the quantity and quality by sending a message to MFarm. Once that's been confirmed and the order has been fulfilled, the money is released by MFarm to the farmer's account. With larger orders where multiple farmers are involved, the money is distributed between different accounts.

A major challenge was getting farmers to trust the service, since many others have tried to crack the problem. "Others have come to the market using technology to create a trading platform that farmers are not ready for. They have also been set up by non-profit organisations and run out of money, leaving the farmers high and dry. This makes them sceptical."

MFarm

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MFarm is a for-profit organisation, taking a transaction fee for every deal done using its platform. This has allowed it to grow the number of users from 2,000 in early 2012 to 7,000 now. A study in central Kenya with 600 farmers showed that farmers could double their sales by using MFarm. "Mfarm can lower costs [of supplies] and offer better margins for farmers, but the other value proposition is a consistent market," says Abass. "It's not just about the prices but also knowing if a buyer will be available."

Furthermore, the network can be used to disseminate information relating to international regulations, for example information about any pesticides that might be banned. "There are so many things you can do with the technology once you have trust," she adds.

Abass is now focussed on the export market and has been in the UK to speak to large retailers who are keen to be more responsible in the way that they source their products. "They want to have social responsibility," Abass acknowledges. "By sourcing produce through MFarm they are playing a vital role in development and securing a consistent supply that is not dependent on middlemen."

In addition to taking a transaction fee, MFarm has also been selling its data to research organisations looking at consumer behaviour and food scarcity.

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Entrepreneurialism is in Abass's blood. "Both of my parents were entrepreneurs; we had shops and restaurants. I grew up selling in a shop and in my spare time I used to have a kitchen garden where we would plant and sell to my neighbours. We also used to put on small plays for our neighbours to watch and sell sweets made out of milk and sugar."

After completing her computer science degree and working as a developer for a while, she set up MFarm in 2010, aged 26. The company later attracted $100,000 (£65,000) in seed funding from Techfortrade and now employs 16 people.